
Howard 
University Record 

November, 1910 




Addresses by 

Dr. Elmer E. Brown 

Bishop Ghas. H. Brent 

Mr. Dwight O. W. Holmes 

Pres. Taft on University Training 



Wono^aph 



HOWARD 
UNIVERSITY RECORD 



Addresses by 

The Right Reverend Charles H. Brent, 
Bishop of the Philippines^ Mr. Dwight 
(). W. Holmes, A. M., Dr. Elmer E. Brown, 
United States Commissioner of Kdii cation^ 
President Taf t on University Training 



Printhd by The Howard University Press 






University Notes 

The New Hall of Manual Arts and Applied Sciences is now 
building, and will be completed in February. ' 

President Taft ha^ accepted a position on the Board of Trus- 
tees in place of the late General Oliver Otis Howard, one of 
the charter members of the Board. The President is taking an 
active interest in the work of the institution. 

It is a remarkable fact that the income from tuitwn alone from 
the School of Medicine for the past two years aggregates over 
$55,000 cash. In the school of Liberal Arts and Academic 
Departments, there is only a moderate incidental fee, the ex- 
pense of teachers being largely met by Government appropriations. 

Having outgrown the Central Steam Heating Plant erected 
two years ago, there is now in process of construction a new 
heating, electric lighting and power plant, costing $80,000, that 
will supply the University and the Freedmen's Hospital for 
years to come. Provision is made adequate for the heating oif 
six additional buildings on the campus. \ 

The entering Freshman classjn the College of Liberal Arts 
numbers 167, which is unprecedented in the histot'y of Negro 
education. It is a most gratifying response to the enlarged oppor- 
tunities at last offered at Howard. Nearly six hundred students 
are now registered in the departments of physics, chemistry, and 
biology, all classes being taught in the new Science Hall, which 
makes possible the effective instruction of such a body of students 
in the sciences. 

Professor John L. Ewell, D. D., whosedeath is greatly mourned 
by a large circle of friends not only at Howard but throughout 
the nation, has left the sum of one thousand dollars to be ad- 
ministered by the American Missionary Association, to form the 
Ewell fund, the income to be used in the School of Theology of 
the University, for instruction in Church History and Hebrew 
Scriptures, or in any way that may seem best, subject to the same 
conditions as the Stone Fund. 

W. T. Stead, Editor of the London Review of Reviews, has 
pronounced the recent article in the Nineteenth Century by 
Professor Kelly Miller, on "The American Negro as a Political 
Factor" as the most remarkable article in the month's issue, and 
as the most intrepid, thorough-going defense of the political ca- 
pacity of the Negro he has ever seen. The American Review of 
Reviews speaks of it as a vigorous, courageous defense of the 
political capacity of the black man." This article has been pub- 
lished in phamplet form and can be secured at the Bookstore, or 
from Professor Miller. 






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HOWARD 
UNIVERSITY RECORD 

HOWARD UNIVERSITY RECORD: Published by Howard University in January, March, 
June, and November. Subscription price, one year, twenty-five cents. Entered at the Post 
Office at Washington., D. C, as second class mail matter. 

Volume 4 WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER, 1910 Number 4 

Address of the Right Reverend Charles H. Brent 

Bishop to the Philippine Islands, November 2, 1910 
JUj: Pf-esident, Students of Howard University: 

I count it a privilege to be here today and to have this 
opportunity of coming face to face with you and to bid you 
Godspeed in the life that hes before you. 

In my life in the far East, certain words, very wisely written 
long years ago, constantly come to my mind, and the more I 
think of them, the more profoundly am 1 convinced of their truth. 
"God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the 
face of the whole earth." That is to say, God's intention for 
mankind is that it should be a wonderfully diversified family, a 
family at unity with itself. Fortunately it is a diversified family. 
It would be a most unfortunate thing for all of us if we were all 
cast in exactly the same mould; if we all had the same tern- 
perament, the same characters throughout. But personality 
is so rich in its, diversifications that even in a tribe or in a fam- 
ily, you fihd distinct characters, characters that are not antago- 
nistic to each other, but each one supplementing the rest, and 
what applies to the individuals in a family or in a tribe is equally 
true of nations and peoples and races. 

At first sight there may be antagonisms, but when you come 
to look deeply into the heart of the matter, you will find that 
the things which are alike in the various diversifications of the 
great family of men far exceed in profundity and power the dif- 
ferences, and I say I am more and more convinced of this as I 
move about the world and see the dil?erent peoples who dwell in 
the various countries of the world. 

All of us are seeking alike for one great thing. Some of us have 



got nearer the ideal than others, but none the less to all alike 
this goal stands before us, beckoning us on, that we may at last 
achieve. The thing that you and I are striving for is manhood, 
and, without manhood we are of all. beings the most miserable, 
because the one thing God intended us to have, the one thing 
that God gave us the capacity for, which will differentiate 
us from all the rest of creation, and from the very angels 
in heaven, is what I have termed Manhood. And just how 
valuable manhood is, God has proved to us by his own example. 
There is a passage in one of the letters written by the great 
apostle Paul, which seems to me to sum up in a marvelous man- 
ner the whole teaching of Christianity. I refer to those verses 
which open the second chapter of the letter to the Philippians, 
where the apostle tells how the Son of God did not count him- 
self to be equal with God, but humbled himself and took upon 
himself the form of a servant, and became a man, and liyed out 
human life in the midst of human limitations. Now, can there 
be any higher proof of human capacity than this, that God was 
willing to take manhood into his own life; that he was willing to 
strip himself of everything but his selfhood and be known as a 
servant among men, was ready to humble himself even to the 
death upon the cross-f* That is a proof, an incontrovertible proof, 
that manhood is something so highly valued that God himself 
felt that he was incomplete until he had taken it into his very 
life, so that today when you and I look upward, we see what.? 
Why, we see the most familiar thing that human eye could look 
upon. We see in the Godhead, manhood, and the kind of man-: 
hood that you and I covet is that that is declared in the life of 
our Master, Jesus Christ. 

Now, there is just one way in which man can gain manhood. 
There is no short-cut. Doubtless when you have looked at some 
great hero of history, you have felt as though he had been endowed 
at birth with that which we can achieve only through wonder- 
ful difficulties. But if such has been your conception, believe 
me, you are very much astray. No man ever gained manhood, 
no woman ever gained womanhood, without fighting for it. 
God will not allow His prizes to be desecrated by hands thatare 
not ready to labor and to fight, so that between our goal and 



ourselves, there is reared, a cross, and that cross represents hard- 
ship. It represents discipline; it represents suffering; but the suf- 
ferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glor.v that shall be revealed not to us, but in us. 

It is quite possible that you are familiar with certain words 
that were written by a very brave man, who won his manhood 
through extraordinary diflficulties. These were his words: "To 
travel hopefully is better than to arrive, and to labor is success." 
The great author, because he was great in letters as well as great 
in character, who wrote those words was the consumptive Rob- 
ert Louis Stevenson. What a battle for life that man had, and 
yet he used every particle of the vitality which he succeeded in 
gaining, m the help of his fellows. He gained manhood by 
using every bit of strength that he had in behalf of some one else. 

And now I come to the special message which I should like to 
give you. It is the doctrine of my own life, and I feel without 
it I would be powerless and useless. Privilege must always be 
translated into terms of responsibility, or else it will become 
shackles to your feet and chains to your hands. 

Personally, I cannot conceive of a more hopeless position for a 
man than to be born into this world with the proverbial golden 
spoon in his mouth, with all the luxuries of life laid upon him, 
ready in order to be seized and used by him. I consider that the 
future of such a man is deplorable. Unless he has an inheritance 
of insight and of spiritual instinct much greater and much deep- 
er than is ordinary, that man is going to begin life a slave and he 
is going to close his life as he began it, a slave. 

Now, there is just one thing to be proud of. What is it .'^ Is 
it reputation "i Reputation is a most valuable thing, and the law 
in our country is just in seeing that a man's reputation is defend- 
ed, and that no man can rob him of it lightly. But valuable as 
reputation is, there is something which is more valuable, and that 
is character, which ought to be the substance of which reputa- 
tion is the reflection. A man with a reputation and without a 
character is in a very perilous place. A breeze of popular pre- 
judice may rob him of his reputation, and when he is 
robbed of his reputation, if he has no character, what is he 
going to fall back upon.? Character is just another word'for 



manhood of which I have been speaking, and before reputa- 
tion, must come self-respect. Then we must build up 
within ourselves a something that we have a right to rever- 
ence, so that, supposing the world were to take away from us 
everything that we have, so that, supposing we were to stand 
absolutely naked of possessions before God, we would still have 
something that we could look upon with gratification and re- 
spect. Have we got that thing within our lives.? Are we build- 
ing it up in our hearts and characters ? If we have got self-re- 
spect, then reputation means something. It means that the 
community about us recognizes our ideals and that which we 
reverence in ourselves, and gives us due credit for what we are, 
or at any rate, for what we are striving to be. 

There is no one who is more enthusiastic about education 
than I am ; the education of the mind, the education of the 
hands which ought to accompany the education of the mind. 
But the education of the mind and the education of the hands 
are valueless, if not an actual menace, unless side by side with 
these two departments of training, goes the education of the con- 
science, and it is the conscience ruling over the mind that tends to 
create character. 

What I should like to do to-day would be to challenge 
you in such a way as to make you determine above all else to 
reach the highest goal; — to reach the goal of manhood; and hav- 
ing gained manhood, you have gained the best thing that God or 
the world can bestow upon you. And more; than that, it is within 
your reach, but it is within your reach only through those op- 
portunities which God has ordained must be used before we can 
reach the goal. You know what difficulty is.? Why, it is some- 
thing to be overcome. There must be found day by day, difficulties 
overcome. It is not something to be swept aside, to be avoided. 
It is something to be faced. Those magnificent lines of Brown- 
ing come to my mind: 

"One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward; 

Never doubted clouds would break; 

Never dreamed though right were worsted, wrong would triumph; 

Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake." 
That is the kind of students I believe you are going to be. 
You are going to face your difficulties; you are not going to slur 



over them, but j^ou are going to conquer. You are going to place 
them under your feet, and by so doing you will win manhood 
and womanhood. 

Now as to the privileges you have. You have here extra- 
ordinary opportunities. And w^hat are those opportunities to be 
used for.? For selfish aggrandizement.? Are privileges ever to be 
used as toys.? They may for a time seem to be toys, but sooner 
or later, if they are thus used, they will turn into a prison house 
and you will find yourself a shackeled prisoner. 

Privilege is always to be interpreted and translated in terms of 
responsibilty. That is what God declared to man when he gave 
his Son. Equality with God is not a prize to be grasped after 
but to be earned, and we must follow the example of him who 
"though he were rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we 
through his poverty, might become rich.'' 

Privilege translated into terms of responsibility: This then is 
my special message to you. Brand these words on your mem- 
ory. Brood over them. Try and discover their most secret and 
deepest meaning. Any gifts that have come your way are not 
for selfish enjoyment merely. Any victory that you win is not 
for your own satisfaction. One feels very frequently men take all 
the power out of life, out of opportunities they have, by failing 
to use them. To live is something that gives great satisfaction and 
aggrandizement. The very moment privilege comes to us, we 
ought to so use it that it will be a benefit to others. This doctrine 
has always been the texture of Christianity. It has not always 
been put into operation in individual life or in great corporate 
masses of men. I have only to point you to the policy of Great 
Britian in her dealings with the Oriental countries, and you will 
see that through those centuries, her only thought of the Orient 
was a vast treasure house which would give her great wealth if 
she was very wary in her dealings with the Orientals, and there 
is not a chapter in history which is more disgraceful than that 
chapter which tells of the commerce and trading of the East In- 
dia Company. The first dealings of Europe with China were 
not such as to cause any great pride to rise in our hearts, as we 
review that period of history. But now all this is changed. 
We find such men, for instance, as Lord Cromer, a man who is 



endowed with all the best gifts that his country can be'stow on 
him, going to Eg3'pt twent3'-five years ago, and going to translate 
his privilege into responsibility, to give those people what they 
did not have; and what was the result? Why, after he had ad- 
ministered there for some time, Egypt began to change com- 
pletely, and today, now he has finished his course, and is waiting 
for the great change to come, spending his declining years in 
England, — today Egypt has a future, when less than thirty years 
ago, she was a bankrupt nation; today the Egyptian has a national 
pride, when less than thirty years ago he was abject; today 
there is a unified Egypt, where less than thirty years ago Egypt 
was a conglomeration of tribes. And go to India, you will find 
the same thing there. You will find that the world, the Western 
world, is waking up, and that it is trying to interpret its privileges 
into terms of responsibility. It is trying to show that the true use 
of strength is to lay it at the disposal of those who are weak. 

What is your future ? What is your ambition.'' Is it merely 
a personal one .f' Oh, in God's name, let me entreat you to 
change it from being personal and make it national. You 
have a responsibility not merely to the people of your own race 
in this republic, but to the Republic itself. We are part of the 
nation, and your privileges can be interpreted in such a way as 
to make you a contributor, and a real contributor, to the progress 
and well being of this nation. Believe that this is your vocation. 
Do not spend your time in vain regrets. Do not suppose that 
any miracles are going to happen in your case, because they are 
hot; but believe that manhood and womanhood will come to 
you if you will strive for it, if j'ou will overcome your difficul- 
ties and if you will gain that self-respect which is due tO the fact 
that there is in your hearts and in your lives what is "known as 
character. The work that America is trying to do in the Philip- 
pine Islands is just that work, to aid the Filippinos to gain, out 
of their difficulties, manhood. May God bless this University. 
May He rhake the students diligent and earnest. May He give 
them clean motives and strong purposes, and at last, a fine man- 
hood. ' 



Address of Doctor Elmer E. Brown 

United States Commissioner of Eductition 

The formal openini^ address before the academic departments 
of the University was made by Dr. Elmer E. Brown, United 
States Commissioner of Education, on the theme, "The Two 
Sides of Education, — Technical and Liberal." 

The insistence of Dr. Brown who stands as one of the great 
leaders of the modern educational movement in American educa- 
tion, for life training for the doing of practical things, with his 
insistence, also on efficiency, is in line with modern training in 
education. For this, Howard University stands, as it is here 
training the future teachers, physicians, preachers, civic, moral and 
mdustrial leaders of a rising race. Dr. Brown spoke in part as 
follows: 

'.'President of the University, members of the faculties, mem-, 
bersof the University, and friends: It is an honor, Mr. President, 
and I thank you, to be invited to participate in this opening func- 
tion of your academic year. The ties that have bound us to- 
gether personally and officially, as you have intimated, are strength- 
ening from year to year, and it is a thing in which we of the 
Bureau take great satisfaction. Those of us who were present 
at the inauguration of Dr. Thirkield as President of the Univer- 
sity and the celebration at the same time of the Fortieth Anni- 
versary of the institution felt that the University was under the 
strong tide of a forward movement which was going to bring 
about great advancement. That confidence has not been disap- 
pointed. Our expectations have grown larger rather than less, 
as the time has gone on. 

What I want to speak of today is the two sides of education, 
the liberal side and the technical side. A liberally educated man 
is a man who has learned so thoroughly how the whole world 
h-angs together that he constantly sees his own interests only as 
related to the permanent human interests, as interwoven with the 
interest of all other individuals and of all other peoples on the 
face of the earth. Technical education teaches a man to do 
something that distinguishes him from his fellowmen as regards 
his power to serve them in some way for which there is a demand. 
The one side of education enables a man to see the world and 



his relation, and the other side enables a man to do something 
that is his own contribution, and men who are so educated that 
they can accomplish these two results are men for whom there is 
a demand. They are wanted continually. 

Our educational movement of this present time, say for the 
year 1909-1910 lays a new stress upon the technical side of edu- 
cation and is causing us to be interested in the common things of 
life. And I am very much disposed to think that this is 
one of the most American things that we have to learn ; that one 
of the greatest contributions that our America of all races and 
creeds and people is going to make to the civilization of the 
world is a new ability to grasp the intrinsic interest of ordinary 
things. 

The first time that I attended an International Peace Conference 
at Lake Mohonk, Mr. Smiley, who had asked the men together 
for this conference, requested me to attend the breaking of ground 
for a new normal school a few miles away. In the wagon, be- 
sides Mr. Smiley, the driver and myself, were Dr. Lyman Abbot, 
President Eliot, Justice Brewer, President Nicholas Murray 
Butler, President Warfield of Lafayette College, Commissioner 
Draper of New York, and State Commissioner SchafTer of Penn- 
sylvania. After the speeches which were received by the country 
people around, Mr. Smiley proceeded to take charge of the plow, 
and plowed a perfectly straight furrow on the rocky hillside, and 
asked the rest of us to place one beside it. Out of those nine 
men, who had not only an American reputation, but a world-wide 
reputation, men who represented some of the highest and most 
conspicuous and distinguished leadership in this country, Mr. 
Smiley got four straight, good, beautiful furrows plowed across 
that hillside. The impressive thing was that these men, leaders 
in American thought, could yet take pride and satisfaction in an 
ordinary, good, clean skill to plow a furrow in rocky land. They 
put into their work ideas and ideals. The carrying out of this 
idea is the abolition of drudgery. Drudgery is work without 
ideas and ideals, freedom the same work with ideas and ideals. 

You are to be congratulated here at Howard University upon 
the fine showing that your School of Medicine has made in that 
recent report of the Carnegie Foundation, a thing of great signifi- 

10 



cance for the race. The man who has mastered the profession 
of medicine, who has become a really professional practitioner of 
medicine has a work to do in the making of civilization at this 
time in both races that is of incalculably great importance. The 
responsibility centers upon him now and he can do things that no 
one else can do, — and yet I can say almost the same words of the 
teacher. He needs to be able to help his pupils of all classes to 
see the light of eternal things in the commonplace things of every 
day life and yet to do some one thing better than anybody else 
can do it. The teacher who can do that is a conspicuous part of 
of the twentieth century civilization." 

President Taft on University Training 

Remarks of President Thirkield in Rankin Memorial Chapel on 
the Gift of a Large Photograph, with Autograph of President Taft 
It is singularly appropriate that this superb likeness of the Pres- 
ident of the United States should hang in our Garnegie Library. 
That building is forever notable in that the Corner Stone was laid 
by President Taft, and the address of dedication was also given 
by him. It would appear to be unique in the educational history of 
the country that a building should thus have its Corner Stone laid 
and itscompletion signalized by the President of the United States. 
Since Mr. Taft has occupied the presidential chair, he has given 
what appears to me to be the strongest endorsement of the claims 
and needs of the Negro race for the higher education ever spoken 
by a President of this Republic. In strong, judicial terms, Pres- 
ident Taft first laid upon the nation the support of Howard Uni- 
versity as an obligation that should be recognized and carried out 
in a generous spirit. He said: 

This institution here is the partial repayment of a debt — only 
partial — to a race to which the government and the people of the 
United States are eternally indebted. They brought that race 
into this country against its will. They planted it here irretriev- 
ably. They first put it in bondage, and then they kept it in the 
ignorance that that bondage seemed to make necessary, under the 
system then in vogue. Then they freed it, and put upon it the 
responsibilities of citizenship. Now some sort of obligation fol- 
lows that chain of facts with reference to the people who are re- 
sponsible for what that government did. The obligation would 

11 



be clearer, or rather, the method of its discharge would be easier, 
were it not for our constitutional system, which throws general- 
ly upon the States the burden of education, and leaves to the 
general government only certain limited jurisdictions with respect 
to the people. However, in so far as the District of Columbia 
is concerned and the establishment of institutions of learning in 
this District, we are free from any embarrassment with respect 
to carrying out the obligation, and it is fitting that the govern- 
ment of the United States should assume the obligation of the es- 
tablishment and maintenance of a first class university for the edu- 
cation of colored men. 

"It is necessary for the success of the colored race that there be 
among them leaders of that race fitted by university education 
for that leadership. There is not any likelihood, with deference 
to persons who occupy a different position, that either in the 
generosity of the general government or in the generosity of in- 
dividuals who found colored colleges and universities, there is to 
be such an opportunity given as is likely to lead too many col- 
ored men to acquire university education as compared with the 
number of colored men that there are in the community and es- 
pecially south of the Mason and Dixon's line. The opportunity 
that there is for educated colored men to aid their race in the strug- 
gle before them for economic success and the maintenance of 
themselves as worthy and valuable members of the community, 
the opportunity that there is for university men among men to 
assist in that movement, I say is very great indeed. 

^'Through the South one of the things that is essential is the 
cultivation of greater sanitation and greater attention to the laws 
of hygiene among the colored race. What we need in the south 
is a great many more physicians of their own race to tell them 
how to live and to enable them to recover in sickness. 

" The benefit which teachers educated here can do for their race 
goes without saying. Of course the basis of the education of the 
colored people is in the primary schools, and in the industrial 
schools — in schools framed after Hampton and Tuskegee, and 
even those less ambitious, but still furnishing an industrial devel- 
opment. In those must be introduced teachers from such univer- 
sity institutions as this, and it is furnishing the material for the 
faculties of those smaller — not smaller, but less ambitious — 
schools that such an institution as this shall have its chief function. 

"Then, too, among the colored race, the ministers have a 

12 



great influence. Now, if they are to wield that influence they 
cannot be too highly educated, they cannot know too much in 
order that they carry on their sacred functions and discharge them 
to the highest benefit of the race. 

I say these things with a good deal of emphasis, because I know 
there are many who dispute the wisdom of large distributions to 
universities of the colored race, and at one time I was very much 
perplexed with the argument to know whether or not it was 
proper. But what is the fact? There are four universities in this 
country, besides Howard University, devoted to the colored race. 
Now when you consider that there are ten million Negroes in 
this country, you see how utterly inadequate, even for the edu- 
cation of the leaders, those universities, together with this, are, 
and there is opportunity for the founding of more, or certainly 
for the enlargement of this, as Congress and the people of the 
United States shall understand the useful part that this institution 
and institutions like it play in the real uplifting and ottward pro- 
gress of the race. 

. . . Everything that I can do as an executive in the way of 
helping along this University I expect to do. I expect to do it 
because I believe it is a debt of the people of the United States, 
it is an obligation of the Government of the United States, and 
it is money constitutionally applied to that which shall work out 
in the end the solution of one of the great problems that God 
has put upon the people of the United States." 

Moreover, he has shown himself the friend and helper of all 
institutions for the Negro, by giving his time, energies, thought, 
and strong utterances in behalf of many of them. He has ac- 
cepted a place on the Board of Trustees of Howard University, 
as well as on the Board of Hampton, and the Jeannes Fund. 
And to my personal knowledge, he has fulfilled the require- 
ments of his trusteeship in these several institutions in no per- 
functory way, but has generously given time, thought, and 
substance to all of them. 

In sincerity, in broad and generous service, in strong and mem- 
orable addresses in behalf of the broadest and highest education 
of the Negro race to equip that race for effective service. Presi- 
dent Taft has forever laid the friends and helpers of Negro edu- 
cation under a weight of obligation and gratitude. 

13 



Our Debt and Our Duty 

A7i7iual Oration deliver-ed before the Alumni Association of How ^ 
ard University, Washington, D. C, May 25 ,1910. By Diuight 
O. W. Holmes, A. M. '01. 

I am proud today that I am an alumnus of this, the greatest 
institution for the higher education of the race in America, or in- 
deed upon the Globe. I am glad to he here to fraternize, in the 
spirit of common adoration, with the nearly three thousand chil- 
dren of the same mother. I feel highly favored in being permit- 
ted to unbosom my soul today in protestations of love, honor and 
devotion to the cause of Howard and the spirit for which she 
stands. Nine years ago, on Commencement Day, as a member - 
of the class of 1901, it was my pleasure to speak at the exercises 
upon the subject "Our Debt and Our Duty;" the "'Debt" being 
that which we, living in the 20th century, owe to the centuries 
gone before; the "Duty", .the payment of the obligation which 
such an inheritance imposes. Today my theme is the same — 
Our Debt and Our Duty", — its application somewhat more 
restricted. 

We stand today debtors indeed to this University. Whether 
as American citizens, glorying in the strength and vigor of the 
nation and the liberality of her institution; whether as members 
of the race of enfrancnised millions, rejoicing in our emancipa- 
tion from the thraldom of ignorance and thrilling with vigor 
born of a realization of intellectual heights yet unattained; or 
whether as children of this, our Mother, sent forth into the 
world to preach her gospel of equal educational opportunity for 
all men — whether as American citizens, members of the Negro 
race, or as alumni of this institution, we owe individually and 
collectively a debt to Howard University which can never be 
repaid. 

The Federal Government acknowledges the debt of the 
American people to the Negro race, and contributes annually a 
generous appropriation toward the support of this institution in 
partial payment of that debt. 1 would much prefer, however, 
that this obligation be charged to a different account; for the debt 
that the American nation owes to the Negro race is unpayable 
in coin of the realm. Let America consider her obligation as one 

14 



to Howard University herself, for the actual return that she has 
given and is now giving for dollars invested. I take it as axio- 
matic that a national obligation is created by any institution 
that has wrought largely in the solution of a perplexing prob- 
lem, has contributed to the general prosperity of the nation, in- 
creased its average of economic efficiency, raised its standards of 
citizenship, and placed upon higher planes the intellectual, social 
and moral ideals of its people. Applying this test to Howard 
University, Uncle Sam has invested wisely and well, and is 
drawing interest upon his investment at a thousand per cent. 

The foundation of Howard University, in 1867, as an institu- 
tion for the training of the lately emancipated race, along the 
lines of the higher education, was a bold experiment suggesting 
divine inspiration on the part of its founders. But confidence in the 
possibilities of manhood, in whatever conditions, under whatever 
skin, wherever found, was the master virtue of our patron saint, 
now glorified; and for all his battle and his blood, his wisest 
counsels and his good right arm, Oliver Otis Howard rendered 
to America his grandest service when he erected here at the 
nation's heart this abiding monument to his audacious faith. 
The right man, at the right time, did the right thing. 

The Emancipation, with its concomitant rights, privileges, 
duties and immunities, created a situation anomalous and unpre- 
cedented in its economic, social and political aspects. As though 
endowed with supernatural authority, the Proclamation pur- 
ported to transform bondmen into freemen, slaves to citizens, 
chattel into men with inalienable rights. But in spite of its 
heaven-born conception and humanitarian intent, its immediate 
effect was merely to unmanacle the physical bodies of the slaves, 
at the same time creating a crisis in a situation already strained 
to the breaking point. A horde of what were commonly con- 
sidered half-savage blacks had suddenly been loosed upon the 
land — a mass of human matter, sired of jungle tribes, debased by 
over two centuries of slavery's repression, brutalized by social 
practices, immoral and unmoral ; cowed by an industrial system 
which rendered man twin brother to the ox ; debarred from all 
practices creative of the virtues of patriotism ; denied all knowl- 
edge of the principles of organization and administrative control, 

15 



and unacquainted with the veriest rudiments of formal education, 
so necessar}' to complete manhood and successful citizenship. 

At this crisis the American nation faced tremendous possibili- 
ties for good or evil. Correctly handled, this mass was capable 
of becoming a useful, important and even indispensable part of 
the population. But so delicate was the situation that the whole- 
sale application of false doctrines might easily have lost all that 
had been so dearly bought with blood, and rendered the last state 
worse than the first. Four millions of human beings, whatever 
their condition, possess all phases of possibility and the inaugura- 
tion of any system of education at that critical time, based on the 
assumption of racial intellectual incapacity, would doubtless have 
been a dire mistake. 

And Howard University, my fellows, on the principle that 
what is good for man is good for man, was founded forty-three 
years ago to try out the highest possibilities of this apparently 
hopeless horde; and to give to the sons of this people the same 
opportunities for intellectual growth, to disclose to their long 
blinded eyes the same heavenly visions; — verily, to feed their 
souls upon the same bread of life as was afforded to the sons of 
the best blood of New England. That this course was a mistake 
we emphatically deny, for the history of the achievements: of 
Howard University justifies the faith of its founder. Her three 
thousand graduates, and other beneficiaries in less degree, have 
carried her spirit throughout America, weaving it into the very 
warp and woof of the fabric of the life of the Negro race, and 
thereby improving in a marked degree the character of the Amer- 
ican people as a whole. 

For service rendered by the exercise of the peculiar function of 
supplying the higher needs of the black race, and for giving first 
aid in averting the menace of emancipation, the Federal Gov- 
erriment owes an eternal debt to Howard. And you. Honored 
Sir, in the capacity of President of this University, in placing be- 
fore Congress her needs, stand, not as a beggar pleading reluctant 
alms, but as an advocate of a vast national obligation. West 
Point and Annapolis, in making their ministers of war, certainly 
render no greater service to the nation than does Howard in train- 
ing her apostles of peace. Such, then, is the debt of all Ameri- 

16 



can citizens to Howard University. The peculiar debt of the 
Nes!;ro race as such is too obvious for comment, and is directly 
corollary to the proposition just established. 

Strange as it may seem, it is as individual graduates of this insti- 
tution that we are too often forgetful of our personal obligation 
to her beneficence. I am extremely grieved to confess that I 
have known both graduates and students of the University who 
seemed to show little or no respect, to say nothing of gratitude, 
toward this tender mother. Now, while I can find excuses for 
some of our shortcomings, I can find absolutely none for this' By 
far the largest number of' her students, certainly during the first 
forty years, came here in penurious circumstances, wholly or 
partially unable to pay in dollars and cents for the educational 
privileges they came to seek. And yet none were turned aWay 
on that account. Literally we came hungered and she gave us 
meat; thirsty, and she gave us drink; strangers and she took us in; 
naked, and she clothed us. More than one of you today can 
verify these statements from personal experience, and in your 
heart will endorse every word. 

And more — practically every one of us owes \\'hatever mental 
and moral superiority over his fellows he may possess, whatever 
measure of influence or leadership he may exercise, and whatever 
heights in his particular vocation he may have attained, to the 
spirit implanted by, and the inspiration received from those heroic 
men and women who for many years, in all the departmehts Of 
this University, gave themselves so freely and so unselfishly that 
we might not be denied. Shame upon every son of Howard who 
denies his rich inheritance or fails in gratitude to her and devotion 
to her cause. And so, as American citizens, as members of the 
Negro race, and as Howard Alumni, we owe a three-fold debt 
to this institution. How can we pay.'' What is our duty.'' 

In spite of her glorious achievemerlts, her brilliant history, 
Howard University has just rounded out her childhood. The 
tasks so far accomplished are merely the ripe fruits of her infan- 
cy. Her chief glory is a glory yet to be. We consider her past 
achievements as indicative merely of greater possibilities. In an- 
ticipation, I see here an institution for the higher education of the 
Negro race, equal in all respects to the best university in existence 

17 



for the higher education of the white race. Indeed, if I read 
correctly the signs of the times, such an institution will ere long 
be an absolute necessity, for the Negro student in the white col- 
leges of this country is fast : becoming persona iion grata. The 
spirit of philanthropic pity of the seventies and eighties, which 
welcomed the sons of freedmen to academic fellowship, is fast 
being displaced by a feeling of polite tolerance; in turn, I fear, to 
be succeeded by absolute prohibition or such cold indifference 
as to freeze ambition too precious to be thus sacrificed. And, 
however much we deplore this tendency, it is nevertheless exis- 
tent. The American movement toward racial separation is no)A' 
battering at the last strongholds of those forces which have op- 
posed its progress — namely, the institutions- of higher learning. 
The Berea College incident is indicative of this tendency; and 
the recent action of the student body of Oberlin in demanding a 
separation of the races signifies that there is no immunity — for 
Oberlin was the pioneer in the admission of Negro pupils to the 
privileges of its courses and to social fellowship with the student 
body. 

And not for this reason alone is such a University necessary. Not 
a few of the most noted educators in America, of both races, 
contend that, other things being equal, it is in general far better for 
Negro youth to be trained in Negro schools, where the inspiration 
resulting from contact with teachers of their own race, and the 
unrestricted intercourse with their fellows in usual student activi- 
ties, affords a stronger stimulus to the development of manly char- 
acter, and more adequately trains them for their peculiar duties 
than is possible under any other conditions. 

Be that as it may, however, it is an indisputable fact that the 
best class of white Americans believe, and certainly we believe, that 
there should be at least one truly great Negro university, provid- 
ing such courses in the arts, sciences and education; in technolo- 
gy, in all its variations; in medicine, law, theology, and com- 
merce, and both graduate and undergraduate, as will receive the 
unqualified endorsement of the highest educational thought of 
the twentieth century. And Howard seems destined by favor- 
ing fortune to become that great national Negro university. 
Situated at the nation's capital, with all the advantages offered 

18 



by the city of Washington as an educational center; closely in 
touch with the machinery of national legislation; surrounded and 
patronized by the largest and most intellectual group of Negroes 
in the world; and intimate with the largest and best organized 
public school system for Negroes to be found anywhere, Howard 
stands unrivaled for the fulfilment of this high destiny. 

Now, the Honorable President of this University has stated on 
more than one occasion that he considered the alumni body its 
greatest asset. And indeed three thousand men and women, 
with many more to come, devoted to the cause of the greater 
Howard, should be an irresistible influence in the realization of 
this great ambition ; and will be, if we do our plain duty. And, 
as I see it, our duty is this : 

First. — To perfect our organization to the end that every 
graduate of this University be reached and made to feel that he 
is an integral and important part of the University corporation. 

Second. — To kindle anew in the breast of every son and 
daughter of Howard that soul flame of fervent love and enthusi- 
astic devotion that finds no task too hard, no sacrifice too great, 
if the end be the glorification of Alma Mater. 

•Now, iii the past, while our graduates have wrought nobly in 
the fields of general usefulness, as an alumni body they have 
done little for the University itself. We find, however, some 
extenuation for this apparent lethargy in the fact that we repre- 
sent the first generation of Howard's sons and daughters. 
While students here, no traditions or evidences of alumni activ- 
ity existed to inspire us; no enthusiastic re-unions of old gradu- 
ates recurred annually to make us long for the time when we, 
too, could join their devoted ranks; no returning classes met 
around their ivy to sing old songs and tell old tales, and swear 
again eternal love for Howard. No, the first generation had none 
of that inspiration. 

When a boy down in Virginia, about eighteen or twenty 
years ago, I used to read in the newspapers and magazines 
about the doings at the big universities — Harvard, Yale, Prince- 
ton, and such. And I often read, too, of the alumni of those 
schools and the loyal things they did — presenting a boat-house 
here, endowing a scholarship there, building a library or a dor- 

19 



mitory in the other place. So the alumni idea loomed large to 
me even then; and to be an alumnus of Howard seemed to me 
the privilege superlative. When finally I reached this place I was 
keenly disappointed. I expected to find evidences of great 
alumni activity, for the alumni idea that had impressed itself 
upon me was that of a body equally as important in university 
life as the faculty or the students. I waited patiently through 
the first year, but no Alumni. Commencement time drew near; 
surely they would come now, for in my tales of college life this 
was the witching hour when they appeared and showed their 
wondrous feats. But Commencement came and went — but not 
the Alumni. And for eight long years. I waited and watched — 
but all in vain. And then I realized that the Alumni, like the 
University, had not grown up — that was all. 

But, my fellows, the University is to-day in the first flush of 
its early manhood. The new century has brought to her the 
strength and vigor of maturity, and ushered in her welcome re- 
naissance. Every sign of development and progress, which shows 
so conspicuously on every hand, indicates that she has started 
upon the realization of her great destiny. Taking the famous 
universities of the country as models, the present administration 
is wisely adopting the practices and customs that have made 
them great, and are perpetuating their greatness. And this alumni 
body must wheel into line with that policy, and take the same 
relative position to Howard, and perform the same relative func- 
tions, as do the alumni of the greatest universities in America. 
In no other way, my fellows, can we make good President Thir- 
kield's declaration — that its body of Alumni is the University's 
greatest asset. 

The Alumni re-unions held here since 1907, and of which this 
is the third, are steps in the right direction. But more complete 
organization must be effected and some method devised, by which 
that larger part of our brethren, unable to attend this annual 
gathering, may be brought more clearly into alliance with us 
In some way— either through the home Alumni here in Wash- 
ington, or from the University itself, information of what is going 
on here and what is expected of everyone, should be distributed 
thorughout the land, wherever a graduate of the University has 
his abode. 

20 



Another most fruitful source of Alumni interest is the practice 
followed at many of the^reat universities — Harvard, for example 
— of inviting the graduates to vote for alumni representatives on 
the governing body of the institution. Such an invitation inspires 
a belief in the mind of the recipient that the University respects 
the opinions ofher own children and seeks from them active co- 
operation. The objections to this plan, which were valid here 
twenty years ago, are invalid to-day. The inauguration of some 
such practices, by which all those who have gone out may be 
retained in intimate fellowship, is an urgent duty and a pressing 
task. In no other way can a unified, interested and effective 
alumni body be maintained; and unless we mean to be effective, 
this meeting, and all others like it, are mere shams and vain pre- 
tenses. 

But, fellow Alumni, our greatest task, our most urgent duty, is 
the creation and perpetuation of a Howard spirit, a college loyal- 
ty, an eternal devotion — first within our own hearts; and we must 
endeavor, by every legitimate means within our power, to render 
conditions here conducive to the development of those same vir- 
tues within the hearts of those now sojourning here and those to 
come, who will some, day join our ranks. Mere talking will not 
do it, for abiding love is not born of academic discussion. Argu- 
ments of cause and effect engender no devotion. Logical disser^ 
tations, with their "why's" and "wherefore's" arouse not undying 
enthusiasm. Love, enthusiasm and devotion are sentiments born 
and nurtured in the hearts of men by deeds that try the soul, quick- 
en the pulse, and warm the blood. That indefinable, unreasoning 
sentiment which we call patriotism is the greatest asset of a na- 
tion's glory, and the best guarantee of its integrity. Some one 
has said that war is a necessity, if for no other reason than that: it. 
keeps alive that potent virtue, and fans to white heat that vital fire 
without which a nation were indeed dead. It is in doing deeds, 
for her glorification that the true, soulful devotion for Howard 
must be born. 

Now, the daily papers and other periodicals that come to rny 
table I read with eager eyes and hungry brain. But once a week 
comes a modest little sheet, imperfect, brief; but this one I read 
with my heart, for it is to me a letter from home, and I knozv that 

21 



the boys who issue that journal, at such a sacrifice of their time 
and labor, simply because they feel that Howard should have a 
respectable student publication, will in years to come be the men 
who will help erect here a suitable building to house the Univer- 
sity press. For two years the Dramatic Club has spread the 
name and fame of Howard by the excellence of its histrionic pro- 
ductions. The sacrifice of time and effort, so necessary for the 
successful presentation of these plays cannot but leave a whole- 
some spirit of love and loyalty in the heart of each and every par- 
ticipant. And how can we estimate the service rendered to the 
cause of Howard by those oratorical champions who have during 
the present season vanquished four pretentious rivals on the plat- 
form of forensic debate ^ These same orators will in after years, 
with equal enthusiasm, and in the same stentorian tones, speak 
out for this cause they too have learned to love. And we, as 
Alumni, should constantly encourage and generously patronize 
such manifestations of student activity and use our influence in per- 
suading every wellwisher of Howard to do the same. 

But it is probably in the field of athletic endeavor that the 
seeds of college spirit find most soil. The spirit imbued by 
clean, physical contest is in kind and character similar to that 
engendered by honorable battle-a white hot flame when stress is 
at its height, followed by a warm red glow, less fervent but eternal. 
Whose soul, upon yon field, did' not thrill with emotion last 
Thanksgiving Day f Each Howard heart beat faster and faster, 
as the game went on ; each love surged stronger and stronger; 
each voice rose higher and higher; until all burst forth in one tre- 
mendous and exultant shout of victory, when our gallant- war- 
riors forced the ball across the line, wiped the blot from our es- 
cutcheon, redeemed our honor, and set floating proudly to the 
breeze the glorious White and Blue. That whitfe hot flame 
branded "Howard" on every heart that felt its touch. 

In football, basketball, baseball, track and field, Howard's 
athletes have for years wrought nobly for her cause; in fact, I 
venture to say, have contributed most largely to the creation of 
that vitalizing spirit of which I speak, and yet this all-impor 
tant branch of University life receives the least serious attention, 
if the provision of adequate facilities be taken as the criterion^ 

22 



Nor IS this condition new — noreven as bad now as ithasbeen. In 
m}' days we practiced football every day in grime and sweat; but 
were generously allowed one bath on Tuesday night, as a special 
luxury, and another on Saturday as a weekly necessity. The 
present shower batlos certainly show considerable advancement. 
Our training diet consisted of whatever we could find lying loose 
and unguarded, from peanuts all the way up to gingersnaps and 
pie. The training table as now conducted is indeed a big step. 
And much in those days, fifteen years ago,, did we long, and long 
did we cry, that we might have a gymnasium — and Howard's 
athletes, and indeed the student body as a whole, are crying just 
as bitterly to-day as we did then — and the ground is yet un- 
broken. 

Howard University Alumni! the call to immediate and specific 
duty is here! The world judges worth by results — by things 
done. Howard claims success because she has given to the 
world men and women who are doing its work. Our honored 
President of the University is hailed as a success because he is 
bringing things to pass. The beautiful library, lately dedicated, 
and the commodious Science Hall, now nearing completion, are 
but visible evidences that he is doing what he came here to do. 
And if this Alumni Association means anything at all, it will 
speedily erect that gymnasium which it has pledged to the students 
of this institution, both present and future, and in so doing it will 
rear aloft an enduring moment to true alumni zeal, and furnish 
inspiration to student generations yet to be. 

Whenever I return to these scenes even the physical and ex- 
ternal manifestations of the University arouse again in my soul 
the same feelings of love and devotion which I knew when la 
student here, and which makesHoward almost a fetich to me. And 
I ascribe this tendency to the intense interest taken in all branches 
of student activity. And, given proper facilities and encourage- 
ment, 'all students who come to this place will take such a deep 
interest in the various phases of university life, through the years 
of their sojourn here, as to kindle that spark and fan that flame 
of loyalty and love to such enduring heat, that in after years the 
sentiment of each heart can be voiced in the words with which 
my heart expressed its love one night awhile ago, when I had re- 

23 



turned to these dear scenes as a wandering child to the old home: 
I love every spot, every blade of grass 
That carpets thy bosom fair; . 

Thy hallowed halls, thine ivied walls, 
Every memory that lingers there. 
And the voice of the breeze as it sings in the trees, 
Seems to say in its musical rhyme, 
' That thy heart as of old is as dear to my soul 
As it was in that long gone time. 
When thine old walks I see,, every face dear to me 
(Monies again, and loved voices I hear; 
Then with rapture divine, round my heart I entwine 
Each remembrance of thee, Mother dear. 
Oh, in years yet to be, as thy vision 1 see, 
When the sands of my life run low, 
May my heart beat as' true to the white and blue, 
As it did in those days long ago. 

O, Sons and Daughters of Howard, — to this our Mother we 
owe eternal devotion!! She needs our arms — our prayers — our 
tears — our hearts! 

Alumni Notes 

Prof. L. B. Moore, Ph.D., Dean of the Teachers College, has 
reported to President Thirkield the distribution of recent graduates 
of the Teachers College, of Howard University, showing that there 
is a great demand in the educational field among colored people for 
professionally trained teachers. He reports that the demand far ex- 
ceeds the supply; that because of the forward move in education upon 
all lines and the introduction of the new courses of study, superiii- 
tendents of education are searching diligently to find well equipped 
teachers for theirschools. His report of last year's graduates shows : 

Mr. H. L. Cox, Principal of Douglass High School, Colum- 
bia, Mo., Mr. W. B. Overton, Principal of Mechanic Street 
School, Cumberland Md., Miss Phoebe Perry, Teacher in High 
School, Wheeling, W. Va., Miss Alice Porter Murray, 
Teacher in High School, Cairo, 111., Mr. Rufus J. Hawkins, 
Teacher in A. and M. College. Tallahassee, Fla., Miss Sadie 
Bruce Davis, Teacher in State Normal School, Elizabeth City, 
N. C, Bertha Hanson, Teacher of the Morgan College Branch 
Institute, Lynchburg, Va., Miss Emma Williams, Teacher in 
Public School, Milford, Del., Miss Helen E. Jones, Teacher in 
State Normal School, Montgomery Ala., Miss Birdie Jordan, 
Teacher in State Industrial Institute, Topeka, K'an. Miss Edna 
Cook declined a position at East St. Louis to return to the Uni- 
versity for further study; Mr. William R. Williams, is pursuing 
Post Graduate Course in the University; Prof. F. D. Bluford. 
who graduated a year ago, has been elected Dean of the State Nor- 
mal School at Frankfort, Ky., at a salary of $1000.00 per year. 

24 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Justice Job Barnard, President 
George Wm, Cook, Secretary 
Edward L. Parks, Treasurer 



Term Expires 1911 

Dr. Charles B. Purvis Dr. J. H, N. Waring 

Dr. Marcus F. Wheatland The Rev. J. E. Moorland, D. D. 

Mr. John T. Emlen Mr. J. DouU Miller 

Wilbur P. Thirkield, LL. D. 

Term Expires 1912 

Chief Justice Stanton J. Peelle The Rev. A. F. Beard, D. D. 

President E. M. Gallaudet The Hon. Henry M. Baker 

The Rev. Charles Wood, D. D, The Rev. Charles H. Richards, D. D. 

Judge George W. Atkinson Dr. John R. Francis 

Term Expires 1913 

Justice Thomas H. Anderson Justice Job Barnard, LL. D. 

The Rev. Francis J. Grimke, D. D. Mr. William V. Cox, A. M. 

Dr. Booker T. Washington Mr. Henry E. Pellew 

Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner Mr. Cuno H. Rudolph 

THE HONORARY BOARD 

President William Howard Taft Bishop Benjamin F. Lee 

Mr. John A. Cole The Hon, Joseph D- Sayers 

Mr. S. V. White The Hon. Joseph H. Choate 

The Hon. George H. White Bishop Alexander Mackay-Smith 

Patron Ex -Officio 

The Secretary of the Interior 

The Hon. RICHARD A. BALLINGER 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



A_011_601 813 ft # 



